Efforts to translate material from the space capsule just arrived in our galaxy from beyond its furthest reaches have paid off at last. We can say now that the small, automated capsule is called - roughly translated from the sibilant tongue of its makers - the Verdant Shores 7, an extra-galactic probe conveying a history of its people and the others who share the galaxy whence it came: The nearest to our own. Cosmic rays and quantum effects have conspired with time in the capsule's long journey across intergalactic space, and many of its contents have therefore been corrupted or lost, but some inferences still can be made about the capsule itself, its makers, and their history.
The Verdant Shores Project that led to this intergalactic probe must have begun at the time that its reptilian founders call 2300, and at first the project seems to have been concerned only with seeking new homes for their people within their own little cluster of stars. The Verdant Shores 1 was in fact an enormous colony ship, carrying two million of their people to a star much like their own, where they were fortunate to find a world they could safely inhabit, its surface green with jungle vegetation, upon their arrival in their year 2303.
"At Morrig, we have found our own true home, green light to shine upon green jungle canopies, giving light and shade to the green of our scales."
Other early fragments suggest an intense early period of scientific and astronomical exploration, including an obscure reference apparently mourning the "impossibility of deuterium" and this image, believed to be from 2307:
"Given the importance of the Rayden system to our future, our only choice is to pursue the swiftest possible means of extending our colony ships' range to reach it."
Thanks in part, perhaps, to this aggressive exploration, they managed to achieve first contact - though not to open communication - at an early date. Corrupted datafile positions suggest that this composite image may originate as early as 2312:
"If the Meklar claim the green stars that are the lifeblood of our race, what hope will we have for survival?"
Similar contact appears to have been established some time thereafter with a race called the Bulrathi, not long after the designers of the Vedant Shores starships completed their first official catalog of nearby stars - one of several images which suggest they identified their own race as the "Sakkra," while other fragments suggest that they called their home star "Sssla."
"We seem to be hemmed in on both sides! Claiming the stars whose green light we need for our very survival may be even harder than it first appeared."
With all attempts at communication still failing, the Sakkra seem to have taken measures to ensure access to at least some of the stars they had explored, beginning with the production of two "Lime" starships in 2326, followed by several more over the course of the next Sakkra years. From the image below, it seems obvious that the Lime-class craft were long-range twin-laser destroyers.
"We must hold these worlds at all costs! I can only hope that these will be enough...."
It appears that by this time, their people had made their first 24th-century improvement in industrial construction techniques and were swiftly closing in on their second, as well as the means of speeding their waste cleanup abilities. The reasons behind their emphasis of these particular projects were at first obscure, but another data fragment, believed to originate in 2338, may shed some faint light on the reason.
"At last our hopes are realized; may the Limes hold until it can arrive!"
A thorough search of the files still surviving aboard the Verdant Shore 7 suggests that only two Longstar colony cruisers were ever completed - one in 2339, the other in 2342. The reasons are not entirely clear, but another fragment, probably from 2343, may be suggestive.
"It seems a single Lime would have held here where our scout alone cannot, but we could hardly have known in advance, nor dare we spare a single ship from Rayden even now!"
A Sakkra Year or two later, the colony for which the Sakkra had sacrificed so much was finally complete, at a small planet much like their homeworld orbiting a Sssla-like star near the very center of their galaxy.
"Today we lay claim to the heart of our galaxy, with the hope of colonies at other verdant stars before us. So I say by the light of Rayden, our long labors have not been in vain!"
According to what we can parse from the remaining digital fragments aboard the capsule, long years would pass ere the Sakkra could form another colony. Yet colonizing Rayden revealed the probable reason, for it appears to have enabled another long-held Sakkra dream: Communication with other species of the galaxy.
"Uh ... I have a feeling those Meklar are going to be a problem here...."
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